(613) 843-0705 | (866) 289-0705

Zombie Loam in Modern

If you’re like me, using your graveyard as a second library has always been appealing. It somehow manages to find its way in each of the formats you play. When I first started playing, I was most proud of my playset of Bloodghasts. They came and went in various brews, but never really found a home in an established Modern deck… until now.

As you fill your graveyard, you create a ever-growing toolbox (and list of triggers) to help you find answers or finishers.

A few other angles of attack include:

Going aggro with an early Zombie Infestation. If that fails, you’ve filled your graveyard and are ready for the long game.

Land-locking your opponent. Four Ghost Quarters and four Life from the Loams means decks with low Basic Land counts will struggle to keep up.

Framework

What I really like about this deck is that unlike some combo or linear decks, its pieces are versatile. You have far more keep-able hands so you’re less likely to lose to your own deck. Most of what you have is okay if you draw it, and okay if it ends up in your graveyard. Here’s a quick breakdown of the cards:

Sideboard

Raven’s Crime: If your opponent tries to out-value you or if you have a tough time dealing with things that hit the battlefield

Older versions featured Smallpox, Abrupt Decay and other removal. Though I’ve never played those specific versions, I’ve experimented with Smallpox quite a bit in brews. The times I hated seeing it in my hand far outnumbered the times I didn’t, so I can understand why it was cut. In addition, very seldom will the deck actually draw the card from the top of their library after the fourth turn, so cards like Terminate, Go for the Throat, or Abrupt Decay are a bit of a waste in the mainboard.

How it looks in the meta

The deck is well-positioned right now and here’s why:

Low graveyard hate: With Eldrazi anywhere between 30% and 100% of the meta (depending on who you ask), your deck needs to either be Eldrazi or beat Eldrazi. The latter means you’re seeing some pretty creative mainboards and sideboards, and that means less sideboard slots for other match-ups. This is probably the reason three (!!!) Living End that made top 8 in Melbourne. Like Affinity, graveyard decks get better as people start to forget about them.

Resilient against fast starts: The deck can recover from another deck’s fast start fairly well whether it’s putting out a few Zombies turn two (via Zombie Infestation) or cleaning up the board (via Conflagrate).

Excellent long game: If the game is stalled, Dredging gives you the card you want every turn while your opponents pray for good top-decks.

Sometimes, Darkblast is worth casting to prevent one damage from an attacker.

Don’t forget to target Spellskite with at least one damage from Conflagrate so your other damage can’t be redirected.

Summary

Although we have yet to see whether the current iteration has legs in a sans-Eldrazi world, the deck has shown on a small scale that it can have success versus the tentacled menaces (and other decks in the format). If the deck gains a bit more traction, we can hopefully get more concrete data to establish what type of presence it has on the meta. Definitely pick it up if you’re looking for a somewhat competitive graveyard-based deck that isn’t Living End.